Detroit-Nashville: Babcock is loosing coach battle

Babs run out of ideas on how to win this series,and he is a major reason why Wings are loosing it. He is sticking with the balanced lines approach and it is cleary not working, Wings don't have that much talent they used to have 15 years ago (Russian 5 & SteveY, Shanahan). The talent is too diluted, both in the league and among Wings.

Let's see: Dats plays with guys who can score only occasionally and can't pass; Z plays with guys who can pass ocasionally and can't score. Plus, there is not a single defensemen among Wings who could join the attack and substitute for a forward when there is an opportunity (even Nick, Rafalski was probably the only one).

The result: Wings' attack is too predictable and expertly suppressed by well-organized Nashville defence. Shot stats? How many do you need to score from centre line?

Nashville defence is good, so is the goalie, they are entrenched, and you need "shock troops" to break through - unite Dats and Z: they both can pass and score, put Fil with them (at least he can skate and pass, most of the time). Then again they will need time to start clicking, but Babs loves to change lines and that destroys chemistry.... too bad, Wings are losing to a bunch of grinders.

We've been coming up with line combos all season, but there's always something that doesn't click. No matter how you line people up, there's always one guy that doesn't fit.

One "superline" and three ho-hum lines won't get it done. We really do need Helm and Eaves to give us a good bottom 6. If they were in right now, I'd say load up the top line, but since the bottom lines aren't that stellar, I really can't justify putting Hank, Pavel, and Flip on one line and leaving Bert, Mule and Hudler/Cleary as a line. There's also the problem of being low on centers at the moment.

I don't think the problem is in the line choices. We just need to get the pucks past Rinne and have someone there to catch the rebounds when we don't. If we had a Homer type on every shift, we'd have way more goals.

"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff." -- The Doctor

nashville has good defense? what the f*** are you talking about? after weber-suter they drop off quick. the wings aren't taking the puck down low and getting dirty, especially on the PP. nashville has a tremendous amount of blocked shots, but we are making it all to easy for them. watch philadelphias power play, how they set up is unreal, they run 4 deep with one up top but are fast enough to get back on a clear or breakout.

“Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud.” - Sophocles

This just in, Stevie gives Canada the Order of Yzerman. Country bows and feels unworthy.

I think fans have a reason to be negative. Odds are against them and pretty much have been since the home win streak. You can say "I won't stop believing in my team" or "We got this" but the truth is we have been disappointing for a supposed elite team. Now saying Red Wings suck and Holland's a ****** blah blah is ridiculous. 21 straight years is insane and not many franchises will ever be able to achieve this feat. But we can all see that this isn't a Wings juggernaut not getting the lucky bounces like the 03 and 06 teams. This team has serious holes and a lot of quicker and more physical teams are now exploiting this. It's tough but we can't demand perfection from an imperfect team. But maybe this team has some drive and a not quitting attitude starting tonight...Hope so! Love this team no matter what. Go WINGS!

The battle the Wings are losing is goaltending.
Rinne is playing like Thomas did last year. This kid is phenomenal. Great glove hand, tall kid takes up a ton of net space, I have no idea how in the hell he gets all of the low screen shots that he does, intuition?
I love Howard and hope he is here for years to come, but this is the same old story friends.

Wings hit a hot netminder and can not get past him.

Nothing new we have seen it many times around these parts!

"The more I know about people - the better I like my dog." - Mark Twain

"A wise man once told me, ‘Don’t argue with fools. Cause people from a distance can’t tell who is who'." Jay Z, Takeover

"When I was looking for a captain, I wanted a guy with the Red Wings crest tattooed on his chest," said former Detroit coach Jacques Demers, who named Yzerman captain in 1986. "Steve Yzerman was that guy."

“Told him if he wasn't ultra-competitive he couldn't come here. If he didn't bring it every day he couldn't come here, because he was going to hate it if he didn't, dislike the coach and dislike playing here.

“It's real straightforward. If you don't do it right, you're not happy here." Babcock